1664. insinuation" rather than of "force." In their secret instruc- April 23, tions, the Commissioners were enjoined to "frequent their churches, and be present at their devotions." A very plausible ground for sending the Commission lay in the numerous frontier questions, which existed between the various Colonies. Unfortunately the choice made of Commissioners was an unhappy one. Their selection had been left to the Duke of York, who had doubtless little sympathy with the policy of his father-in-law. Colonel R. Nicolls was, indeed, a most capable officer, but the work of reducing New Amsterdam, of which we shall speak presently, left him little leisure to attend to New England affairs. Maverick appears to have been a man of honour and ability, but he was deeply prejudiced against the rulers of Massachusetts, and it was plainly wrong to appoint as Commissioner one who had been lately petitioning against those on whom he was now to sit in judgment. Nor did the very serious language with which Clarendon warned him against any show of partiality meet the mischief.1 Sir R. Carr and Cartwright were frivolous placemen, little calculated to overawe the Massachusetts Government. The result of the Commission was such as, in these circumstances, might have been expected. The Commissioners were, of course, made welcome in Rhode Island and Connecticut, but in Massachusetts they practically effected nothing. They do not seem by any means to have made the most of their own case. It was one thing to maintain that, in the last resort, a right of appeal should lie to the English Courts; it was another for stray Commissioners to claim to sit as a Court of Appeal in the Colony, upon cases already decided by the Colonial courts. The Commissioners found themselves under the necessity of retiring from the country, and it was a fitting ending of such a hapless mission that the Commissioners' reports and papers should have fallen into the hands of a Dutch privateer. It was impossible for England to acquiesce in this termination of affairs. A peremptory letter was ad- April 10, dressed to the Colony announcing the King's displeasure, 1 Documents relating to N. York, Vol. III. 1666. and ordering the sending of four or five accredited agents to England. A timely present, however, of masts1 and of provisions for Barbados did much to mitigate the anger excited in England; and the fall of Clarendon, and the threatened outbreak of war with both France and Holland served to divert for some time the attention of statesmen, so that the inevitable struggle was for the present put off. Oct. 1666. Meanwhile we find Nicolls asserting that the eyes of all the other Colonies are bent upon the strange deportment of Massachusetts, and advising that the Colony should be dealt with, not by force, but by a temporary embargo on its trade. It is pleasant to turn from this record of ineptitude and prevarication to the business-like and capable manner in which Nicolls carried out his instructions with regard to the Dutch Colonies. By the liberal terms offered, he was able to leave the Dutch Governor isolated with a garrison Aug. 1664. of some 150 men, and the reduction of New Amsterdam and Oct. 1664. Delaware to England was effected with little or no loss of life. The importance of this reduction cannot be overestimated. Henceforth the English Colonies, except for a brief interval, had a continuous seaboard along the Eastern coast, and the fear of a hostile power occupying the important position of the Hudson was removed. As a set-off to this, England under the Treaty of Breda 1667. again gave back to France Nova Scotia, which had been In again conquered by Cromwell's lieutenant, Sedgwick. The cession of Acadia is further noteworthy as illustrating the vagueness in geography often displayed by statesmen. the Order restoring it, it was expressly declared that full rights over Nova Scotia were to be maintained. But, unfortunately, Acadia included Nova Scotia, so that the English Government were reserving to themselves a shadow. When, 1675. on the dissolution of the Council for Foreign Plantations, its secretary, John Locke, had to hand over to Sir R. Southwell, 1 Pepys' Diary, Dec. 3, 1666, “Which is a blessing mighty unexpected, and without which, if for nothing else, we must have failed the next year." 2 See Sainsbury, Preface to Cal., 1660-8. the new secretary of the Committee of the Privy Council, his papers, he accounts for these, but significantly adds a denial of knowledge of the maps and globes also asked for. It must be admitted, however, that Evelyn mentions1 the Council Chamber as furnished with maps, atlases, charts, globes, etc.; and in 1678 we find Blathwayt presenting an account for "books and maps bought by him at Paris. Their Lordships seem well pleased with the collection." In any case English statesmen may well have thought that it was not unwise to have a French thorn in the flesh, threatening so independent a Colony as Massachussets was still showing herself to be, and possibly the same motive may have caused that toleration of the French settlements in Newfoundland, which has been so severely condemned by later writers. 1 Diary, May 26, 1671. ut . on CHAPTER III Shaftes- NEXT behind Clarendon in importance, if indeed at all bury. behind, must rank a statesman of a very different type. Whatever be the clue to the illusive windings of Shaftesbury's domestic policy, his record in colonial matters is consistent and clear. Appointed from the outset a member of the Council for Trade and Plantations, he continued to be one of its most active members. In 1667 we find him proposing a new Committee for Trade, which in the following year made the important recommendation that the Customs authorities should maintain an officer in each Plantation, whose business it should be to administer the Oaths,1 required by the Navigation Act, to the several Governors. Before his fall Shaftesbury became the President of the Council for Trade and Plantations, and it was through him that the Oct. 1673. philosopher, John Locke, was appointed its secretary. Shaftesbury, however, in colonial matters, is best rememCarolina, bered in connection with the foundation of Carolina. In 1663 a Charter was granted to Lord Clarendon, the Duke of Albemarle, Lord Craven, Lord Berkeley, Lord Ashley, Sir G. Carterett, Sir J. Colleton, and Sir William Berkeley, of the territory lying to the south of Virginia. By the English this tract had been known as South Virginia, and by the Spanish and French as a portion of Florida. The attempt of the French to settle there had been foiled by the cruelty of the Spaniards, and the apathy of the French Government in protecting heretics. The area granted covered the lands 167 already given by Charles I. to Sir R. Heath, but it was 1 Note that in 1672 we find Sir C. Wheeler, the Governor of the Leeward lands, complaining that he suspects no other Governor has been sworn to the wi of Navigation but himself; and for aught he can see masters and merchants 2shed by him can trade freely to other islands. terwards Lord Shaftesbury. held that, no attempt having been made to occupy, the earlier grant fell to the ground. Of the eight proprietors, Ashley and Colleton were the most active. Under the Charter, as amended two years later, laws were to be 1665. enacted by the proprietors with the advice and assent of the free men, or of the greater part of them or their delegates or deputies. Such laws were to be consonant to reason, and, as far as possible, agreeable to the laws and customs of England. Power was given to confer titles of honour, but such titles were not to clash with those in use in England. Liberty from custom dues was granted for seven years, on certain exports, and the right was allowed after unloading goods to re-export them to foreign countries within one year, without paying more than the ordinary dues. The Colony was to be immediately subject to the Crown of England, and to be in complete independence of any other Colony. The preamble to the clause relating to religious toleration runs: "Because it may happen that some of the people cannot in their private opinions conform to the public exercise of religion according to the Church of England, or take or subscribe the oaths and articles made and established in that behalf, and for that the same by reason of the remote distances of those places will, as we hope, be no breach of the unity and conformity established in this nation." And the clause itself allows liberty to the proprietors to grant such indulgences and dispensations as they think fit and reasonable. The principle of religious toleration and its grounds could not be more lucidly stated. The Charter being obtained, the next step was to develop the Colony. The aim of the proprietors appears at first to have been to establish a variety of separate and independent Colonies, each of which should have its own Governor, its own assembly, and its own customs and laws. In the extreme north a settlement had already been made from Virginia, and over this Sir W. Berkeley was to preside. It must be allowed that for many years Carolina was very far from a success, but this was due to no want of goodwill or good management on |